FOXAmerican Idol's final season is going to be more than just one last search for a singing superstar. Being that this is the show's last hurrah, it's also going to be a season-long celebration of everything that came before it.
In the just-released opening sequence of season 15, host Ryan Seacrest and judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. take a trip down memory lane and wax nostalgic about the seminal reality series that brought so much talent into our lives. No, we're not crying reliving Kelly Clarkson's win way back when. You are.
"American Idol changed people's lives," Lopez says in the clip above. "Not just the contestants. Not just me. But the people watching it because it made them believe that they could do anything."
"There has been some amazing Idols. And there has been some amazing talent that haven't even won that have come out of American Idol," she later adds. "You take somebody who lives in the middle of nowhere, and they audition and their lives are changed forever."
Check out the opening sequence above, but don't blame us if you need a tissue or two.
American Idol's farewell season begins Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. on Fox.